Set in Denver, the separate lives of a school teacher, a pregnant teenage girl, and two elderly bachelors become one small community.

One of the most beloved novels in recent years, Plainsong was a best-seller from coast to coast-and now Kent Haruf returns to the High Plains community of Holt, Colorado, with a story of even more masterful authority. When the McPheron brothers see Victoria Roubideaux, the single mother they'd taken in, move from their ranch to begin college, an emptiness opens before them-and for many other townspeople it also promises to be a long, hard winter....

A story of life and death, and the ties that bind, once again set out on the High Plains in Holt, Colorado. Bracing, sad and deeply illuminating, Benediction captures the fullness of life by representing every stage of it, including its extinction, as well as the hopes and dreams that sustain us along the way.